Article by:
Christine Cudis
MANILA – The Department of Agriculture (DA) and the private sector continued its collaboration to revive the hog industry affected by the African swine fever (ASF) with a new breeder farm in Nueva Ecija.
The DA committed PHP80 million to the 5,000-sow level breeder nucleus farm of JG Agroventures Inc. and Pig Improvement Company (PIC), which is already under construction in Barangay Sta. Rita, Quezon town.
The state-of-the-art facility will be stocked with great grandparent breeders, whose offsprings or grandparent (GP) piglets will be sold and distributed to commercial and clustered backyard swine raisers in Nueva Ecija and the rest of Luzon.
DA’s National Livestock Program Director Ruth Sonaco, said in a virtual briefing on Tuesday that the agency and the private sector are working to regain the hog inventory to the same level pre-ASF.
“It has always been Secretary William Dar’s mandate to forge partnerships with the private sector because they have the technical expertise and funding. In turn, we (DA) link them with our attached offices who needed their products,” she said.
The Nueva Ecija farm will help the DA speed up its hog repopulation under the Integrated National Swine Production Initiatives for Recovery and Expansion (INSPIRE) program.
Sonaco will draft a memorandum of agreement to formalize the partnership with JG Agroventures and PIC.
To bankroll the project, JG applied for a PHP2.5-billion loan with the Land Bank of the Philippines.
“We envision JG Agroventures to supply the DA initially with 1,000 GP quality breeders for every farrowing, which we will distribute to commercial and clustered backyard swine raisers, and farmers’ cooperatives and associations participating in our INSPIRE program,” Sonaco said.
Other major agribusiness firms are also partnering with the DA to revive the swine industry, like the Univet Nutrition and Animal Healthcare Company and Charoen Pokphand Foods Philippines, Corp. (CP Foods).
CP Foods invested in a PHP500-million swine breeder farm in Isabela and has committed to produce an additional 600,000 fatteners this year.
It also plans to buy at least 300,000 metric tons of yellow corn from farmers for its feedmill business.
Sonaco said the country is still at around 9.4 million hogs at present. The pre-ASF level was at around 12 million hogs. (PNA)
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